Indonesia to buy Vietnamese, Thai rice

The Indonesian government has announced its intent to purchase rice from Vietnam and Thailand through government-to-government deals and its representatives will soon begin negotiations.

Processing rice for export (Source: VNA)

Honorary President of the Thai Rice Exporters’ Association Chookiat Ophaswongse said on September 29 that Indonesia may have to import from other sources too, as Thailand and Vietnam may not be able to meet the 1.5-million-tonne demand, he said.

He added that Indonesia will need rice between November 2015 and January 2016 because its own harvest will start in March.

The 1.5 million tonnes that Indonesia needs is composed of 5 percent white rice and 15 percent broken rice, he said.

In the first nine months of this year, Thailand exported around 7 million tonnes of rice. The local Commerce Industry is confident the export target of 10 million tonnes will be achieved this year.

According to Indonesia’s Jakarta Post, the Indonesian government hopes that 47 million tonnes of rice will be produced next year, the same amount as the total rice production predicted for this year by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).